Arms sales: USA, Pak resume talksIslamabad, September 25Pakistani and US defence officials resumed talks on arms
sales and joint efforts to counter terrorism.
The four-day meeting is the joint Defence Consultative
Group’s first since Washington imposed sanctions on Islamabad for
conducting nuclear tests in 1998.

Elections fail to enthuse Pakistan votersIslamabad, September 25Elections in Pakistan two weeks from now will be the “most
boring” in the Islamic republic’s turbulent 55-year history,
commentators are forecasting.The long-awaited poll on October 10 for national and
provincial parliaments are the first since a military coup three years
ago.

Pak parties to thwart riggingIslamabad, September 25Leaders of Pakistan’s mainstream political parties plan
to hold a meeting here this week to discuss measures to prevent “organised
rigging” and to give a “substantive ultimatum” to the military
ruler Pervez Musharraf to stop interfering in the electoral process.

USA stands
by Blackwill’s remarksIslamabad, September 25The USA has told Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Inamul Haq
that its assessment of increase in cross-border infiltration in Jammu
and Kashmir in the recent past was based on evidence and Islamabad must
put a halt to it.

SU-30 MKIs to be inducted tomorrowMoscow, September 25The state-of-the-art nuclear-capable Sukhoi SU-30MKI air
superiority fighter scheduled to be formally inducted into the Air Force
on September 27 will ensure India’s dominance over important shipping
lanes in the Indian Ocean, experts here say.

(Left) A newly crowned Miss
Universe, Justine Pasek, from Panama, smiles on Tuesday in New
York. Pasek replaces Ozana Fedorova, from Russia. (Right) Fedorova,
a former Miss Universe, poses in a street in Moscow on Monday.
Four months after she became the first Miss Universe from Russia,
Fedorova had her crown removed because she was too busy to travel
much. — AP\PTI

Women Taliban’s new
weaponKabul, September 25Taliban fighters, still hunted by the US-led coalition 10 months after they were driven from power, are increasingly using Afghan women to carry arms under their burqas, according to US military officials.

Jerusalem, September 25The Israeli army arrested 11 Palestinians across the West Bank overnight and blew up the home of two brothers accused of anti-Israeli attacks, military sources and witnesses said.

Palestinian Ohood Sawalmeh waves towards the compound of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in the West Bank city of Ramallah as she braves tight Israeli military siege to see her husband holed up in the complex
on Wednesday. — Reuters

Islamabad, September 25
Elections in Pakistan two weeks from now will be the “most boring” in the Islamic republic’s turbulent 55-year history, commentators are forecasting.

The long-awaited poll on October 10 for national and provincial parliaments are the first since a military coup three years ago.

But any excitement at the prospect of a return to civilian rule has been doused by the elimination of big-name candidates and tight curbs on street campaigning.

Scepticism that power will really be returned to civilian hands by the military regime has also extinguished the traditional election fever.

The apathy of 24-year-old petrol station worker Zubair Ahmed is typical of many in Islamabad. “I have a vote but I will not use it ... By the way, when are these elections going to be held?” he asked.

Political commentator Amir Mateen points to the ousting of the two political families who have dominated Pakistan’s political arena as the main reason for such apathy.

“The absence of former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif and official restrictions are going to make these elections the most boring exercise in the history of the country,” he said.

“There is no real element of choice and that is why there is lack of excitement among the electorate,” analyst Mohammad Afzal Niazi said.

Musharraf says he is determined to avoid a return to what he calls the corrupt eras of Bhutto and Sharif, who ruled successively in the 11 years that preceded his takeover.

In their absence, low-profile and uncharismatic politicians have emerged as aspirants for premiership.

“There is no national campaigner to stir up interest among the masses,” Niazi said.

The largest rally so far attracted just 3,000 persons. In an apparent bid to spur Pakistanis to polling booths, the government has cut the voting age from 21 to 18. Mateen has warned that a low turnout on the voting day will “put the whole exercise in doubt” and cast questions over the legitimacy of the new parliament.
AFP

Islamabad, September 25
Leaders of Pakistan’s mainstream political parties plan to hold a meeting here this week to discuss measures to prevent “organised rigging” and to give a “substantive ultimatum” to the military ruler Pervez Musharraf to stop interfering in the electoral process.

The initiative to form a joint front against organised rigging came from the three major political parties, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) headed by former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) (PML-N) backed by former premier Nawaz Sharif and Tehrik-e-Insaf led by cricketer-turned politician Imran Khan, a media report said today.

PPP’s vice-chairman Makhdoon Fahim, PML (N)’s chairman, Zafar-ul Haq and Imran Khan planned to meet later this week to chalkout a strategy to work out a combined opposition to government’s alleged efforts to prop up its favoured politicians to get them elected to the national Assembly and the four provincial assemblies.

These leaders would be meeting here in the next couple of days to reach a consensus on giving a substantive ultimatum to the government to stop meddling in the electoral process or to go for an all-out agitation, it said.

These leaders were also in contact with the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, an alliance of six religious parties to form a joint front against rigging in favour of the government backed political parties.

According to PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar, all major parties in the run are perturbed over the reports of planned rigging.
PTI

Islamabad, September 25
Pakistan today categorically denied the allegations of involvement in the militant attack on the Swaminarain temple in Gujarat and said charges on this count were aimed at “heightening tensions in the region.” Describing as “ridiculous and mala fide” the charges, a Foreign Ministry statement said: “Pakistan categorically rejects the highly irresponsible statements from some quarters accusing Pakistan of involvement in the terrorist attack.

“Indeed we feel that those behind this terrorist attack and those trying to drag Pakistan into it are working to
height on tensions in the region,” the statement said without naming Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani, who had charged Islamabad for the attack.
PTI

Islamabad, September 25
The USA has told Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Inamul Haq that its assessment of increase in cross-border infiltration in Jammu and Kashmir in the recent past was based on evidence and Islamabad must put a halt to it.

US officials told Haq, who is visiting Washington, that American Ambassador to India Robert Blackwill’s remarks that infiltration across the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir had increased were backed by evidence.

According to the Washington datelined reports in the Pakistani media, the recent critical remarks on cross-border infiltration from Pakistan made by Mr Blackwill were also “duly cleared” by the Bush administration.

The reports said the Bush administration had sent a strong message to President Pervez Musharraf through Haq that the USA expected “full restoration of democracy” in Pakistan.

The twin messages of end to infiltration as well as to complete restoration of democracy in Pakistan were conveyed to Haq during his meetings with Secretary of State Colin Powel, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice for the past two days in Washington, Pakistan newspaper Daily Times reported today.

During her meeting with Haq, Ms Rice told him that infiltration into the Jammu and Kashmir must stop, as there were continuing and disturbing reports that after a hiatus, it had been resumed, though not necessarily on the old scale.
PTI

Moscow, September 25
The state-of-the-art nuclear-capable Sukhoi SU-30MKI air superiority fighter scheduled to be formally inducted into the Air Force on September 27 will ensure India’s dominance over important shipping lanes in the Indian Ocean, experts here say.

“With its induction India would have the most efficient air arm for safeguarding its strategic national interests in the Indian Ocean,” Dr Alex Vaskin, Director coordinator of the Indo-Russian Security Forum (ISRF) think-tank, said.

SU-30MKI — a “four plus” generation fighter, surpasses its closest rival the US F-18 SUper Hornet by 30-40 per cent in manoeuvrability and on-board weaponry and already possesses some of the features of JSF fifth generation fighter project.

With in-flight refuelling, the operational zone of SU-30MKI covers the full area of the Indian Ocean from Malacca Strait in the east to the Red Sea in the west, virtually leading to the geopolitical dominance of India and keeping the Chinese presence within the framework acceptable for the national defence, Dr Vaskin believes.

According to him, the SU-30MKI specially tailored to meet the Air Force’s requirements in the next two decades is far superior to its MKK variant supplied to China with less sophisticated avionics and armaments.

“Super manoeuvrability of SU-30MKI, which is expected to be inducted by the Russian Air Force as SU-37, perfectly fits into India’s military doctrine poised to avert Iraq or Yugoslavia-like situations, when these two countries lacked the capability to hit back at adversary’s massive naval grouping,” Dr Konstantin Makiyenko of Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies (CAST) independent defence think-tank says.

India had signed the initial SUkhoi deal worth $ 1.8 billion with Russia’s Rosoboronexport (formerly Rosvooruzhenie) State Arms Trading Corporation in 1996 for the purchase of 40 SU-30K planes and made advance payment for the development of MKI to bring down the total cost of development and production.
PTI

Kabul, September 25
Taliban fighters, still hunted by the US-led coalition 10 months after they were driven from power, are increasingly using Afghan women to carry arms under their burqas, according to US military officials.

Like “mules” used in other countries as drug couriers, women have effectively become the new secret weapon of the Taliban extremists in their clandestine operations.

Living “mostly” in total poverty, these Afghan women seem to have been “bought” for these missions. It is an apparently new phenomenon in this country where strict Islamic values prevail and under which any questioning of a woman is considered a serious misdeed.

“It proves that psychologically the Taliban, weakened by the anti-terrorist campaign, have decided to adopt more extreme solutions,” said a Kabul-based western military expert.

A US military spokeswoman, Lieut-Col Carla Sylvester, said at Bagram Air Base north of here, on Monday that US troops during raids on Sunday in central and eastern Afghanistan discovered weapons hidden under women’s burqas, suspected to have been concealed on behalf of the Al-Qaida.

“We have seen several incidents of this kind where women are used to hide weapons and other items under their burqas,” she said.

The burqa is an all-encompassing robe with a cloth grill over the eyes, which women were systematically forced to wear under the Taliban’s harsh regime from 1996 to 2001.
AFP

Jerusalem, September 25
The Israeli army arrested 11 Palestinians across the West Bank overnight and blew up the home of two brothers accused of anti-Israeli attacks, military sources and witnesses said.

The 11 arrested were on a list drawn up by the Israeli intelligence services, the army said. Six were rounded up in Tulkarm.

The house blown up in Dura, in the southern West Bank, was the home of Anais and Akram al-Namura, who were jailed after a series of attacks, including a bomb blast which killed an Israeli officer.

Some 15 persons lived in the three-storeyed dwelling, which belonged to their father.

Since the beginning of August, the Israeli army has destroyed more than 40 houses of suicide bombers and others linked to attacks in a measure of retaliation and a bid to dissuade others.
AFP

Dubai, September 25
Three Indians were sentenced to death on the charges of drug dealing and possession by a Dubai court on Tuesday.

The three, Hamid Soofi Mohiyuddin (40), Sulaiman Rahman Ibrahim (30) and Sebastian Kurian (33), were nabbed in a sting operation by Dubai police in May, a newspaper reported on Wednesday. An informer had alerted the anti-drug department that Hamid was in possession of drugs.
PTI

GLOBAL MONITOR

A baby Asian elephant stands on a stool above floodwaters to have its feet sprayed to protect them against fungus in the ancient Thai capital of Ayutthaya, 80 km
north of Bangkok,
on Wednesday. Thailand's Meteorological Department has warned that more heavy rains are expected in the coming days as floodwaters that have ravaged central Thailand move closer to the capital.
— Reuters

ELEPHANTS DESTROY 14,000 PALM TREES
KUALA LUMPUR: A herd of 25 wild elephants destroyed 14,000 young palm trees in an oil palm estate near Temerloh, in Malaysia’s Pahang state, causing losses of $ 263,000, a news report said on Wednesday. The Bernama news agency quoted state Assembly official Hayani Abdul Rahman as saying that the wild pachyderms, in their quest for food, rampaged through almost 400 hectares of oil palm estates in the past three months.
DPA

AUSTRALIA DETAINS 80 ILLEGAL WORKERS
CANBERRA: Australia has detained 80 illegal workers in the past week in a crackdown on building sites around Sydney, authorities said on Wednesday. The Immigration Department said a series of raids targeting the construction industry netted illegal workers from South Korea, China, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Fiji, Ukraine and Ireland.
Reuters

STRIKE SHUTS DOWN LONDON’S TUBE
LONDON: A pay strike shut down the London underground rail network completely on Wednesday, forcing commuters to seek other means of transport or stay at home. Heavier than usual motor traffic was expected during the day-long strike, and some key workers booked into hotels on Tuesday night. Members of the Rail Maritime and Transport Union and the ASLEF train drivers union joined forces to hold the strike.
DPA

PAK TIT-BITS

FOREIGN
ULTRAS ‘ONLY IN POCKETS’
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has claimed that a major part of the country has been cleared of foreign terrorists and the militants are hiding only in “some pockets” in tribal areas. The security forces are hunting down Al-Qaida and Taliban militants holed up in the tribal areas, General Musharraf said at a dinner hosted by the All-Pakistan Textile Mills Association here on Tuesday night.
PTI

PERVEZ:
MINIMUM DETERRENCE TO GO ON
ISLAMABAD: Gen Pervez Musharraf on Tuesday reiterated Pakistan’s nuclear policy as being one of restraint and responsibility and said the country’s minimum deterrence needs would continue to be pursued while avoiding an arms race. “Pakistan’s minimum deterrence will continue to be pursued and its strategic requirements will mainly focus on promoting peace efforts in the region,’’ he said while presiding over a meeting of the National Command Authority, The Nation said.
UNI

US
DEFENCE TEAM TO VISIT LOC
RAWALPINDI: The visiting 40-member US Defence Consultative Group will visit the Line of Control, Pakistan’s News Network International said. The delegation, led by US Undersecretary for Defence (Policy) Douglas Feith, would also visit forward areas along the Line of Control and hold talks with Army officers and jawans, it reported.
UNI

PPPP
CHIEF SURE OF POLL VICTORY
ISLAMABAD: Mr Makhdoom Amin Fahim, president of the Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPPP), said on Wednesday that his party would give a “surprise performance’’ in the October elections and would be in a position to form the next government. “If hurdles are not put in our way, the party will achieve a landslide victory in the poll,’’ he said in an interview.
UNI